Polarized training

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J2R
Aug 2020
3:28pm, 13 Aug 2020
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J2R
HOD, not sure in terms of percentage. But I seem to have settled into a pattern of running easy (below 70% of heart rate reserve) every day, normally about 5-6 miles, including one rather longer run of maybe 9-12 miles. Once a week I will do a speed session concentrating on developing endurance, which may be 1km reps, or maybe a 5k time trial like we had at the club this week, and on another day I will do a shortish speed session concentrating on leg strength, so short sprints or hill work (increasingly necessary as I get older). I don't always do both sessions in a week, but if not, I will try to alternate. So in terms of time, maybe 20%.
Aug 2020
4:55pm, 13 Aug 2020
71,081 posts
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Gobi
HoD - none
J2R
Aug 2020
5:38pm, 13 Aug 2020
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J2R
Gobi, are you saying you don't do any high intensity training at all?
Aug 2020
5:50pm, 13 Aug 2020
3,994 posts
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Kieren
HOD - I'm new to this but in theory, no zone 3 in last 16 week plan although my HR has drifted into zone 3 and higher in the recent heat and between intervals.

I worked out a few pages back that the plan from Jack Daniels had me at almost exactly 80:20 zone 2:4. The beginner general fitness plan has has had sessions with intervals up to 5 minutes in zone 4 heart rate - at threshold and above.

This is my last week on that 16 week plan so I'm taking a bit more rest before I graduate to the next 16 week plan. A glimpse of that shows the introduction of faster but shorter repeats which I expect will pull me into zone 5, followed by rest periods mixed with intervals like the last plan that should be zone 4. I don't imagine the ratios on the new plan are probably almost exactly as noted by Canute in the "about this thread" section.

All of that said, I am quite low volume at the moment with about 4.5 hours a week so recovery time is not a constraint at the moment. I hope to increment the volume in next weeks block.
Aug 2020
5:55pm, 13 Aug 2020
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Hills of Death (HOD)
20% is about right although I’ve been about 10% last few weeks
Aug 2020
7:41pm, 13 Aug 2020
71,082 posts
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Gobi
None running , havent been below 6.30 pace since April

However from my 25 hours or so a week of cardio I do race on the bike but less than 5hours a week is zone 3 and above.
Aug 2020
9:28pm, 13 Aug 2020
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FenlandRunner
Some weeks - none. Others - maybe 5%.
J2R
Aug 2020
11:32pm, 13 Aug 2020
2,903 posts
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J2R
Gobi, so it looks like the high intensity bike stuff you're doing helps your running. That's really interesting, as I would have imagined the high intensity work would need to be more, rather than less, activity-specific than the easy work. I.e. targetting specific muscles.
J2R
Aug 2020
11:47pm, 13 Aug 2020
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J2R
I should add, Gobi, that if you're doing 25 hours a week of cardio, then that's probably a whole different ball game! I did 10:45 last week, and that was a big week. Mind you, I'm not doing any cycling at the moment, and that is always more time-consuming.
Aug 2020
12:06am, 14 Aug 2020
71,091 posts
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Gobi
J2R - I'm doing 100 to 120 hours a month of training and have done all lockdown.

I have had no motivation to hurt myself running as I have no races, however I can race(virtual) on the bike hence all speed work is bike focused. The heart and lungs should have no idea how they are being trained by bike but we shall find out when I do have to do a running race.

However, even when i was running 100 miles a week I rarely did more than 20 of them at effort and most of the time it was probably less than 10 :¬)

About This Thread

Maintained by Canute
Polarised training is a form of training that places emphasis on the two extremes of intensity. There is a large amount of low intensity training (comfortably below lactate threshold) and an appreciable minority of high intensity training (above LT).

Polarised training does also include some training near lactate threshold, but the amount of threshold training is modest, in contrast to the relatively high proportion of threshold running that is popular among some recreational runners.

Polarised training is not new. It has been used for many years by many elites and some recreational runners. However, it has attracted great interest in recent years for two reasons.

First, detailed reviews of the training of many elite endurance athletes confirms that they employ a polarised approach (typically 80% low intensity, 10% threshold and 10% high intensity. )

Secondly, several scientific studies have demonstrated that for well trained athletes who have reached a plateau of performance, polarised training produces greater gains in fitness and performance, than other forms of training such as threshold training on the one hand, or high volume, low intensity training on the other.

Much of the this evidence was reviewed by Stephen Seiler in a lecture delivered in Paris in 2013 .
vimeo.com

In case you cannot access that lecture by Seiler in 2013, here is a link to his more recent TED talk.

ted.com
This has less technical detail than his 2013 talk, but is nonetheless a very good introduction to the topic. It should be noted that from the historical perspective, Seiler shows a US bias.

Here is another useful video by Stephen Seiler in which he discusses the question of the optimum intensity and duration of low intensity sessions. Although the answer ‘depends on circumstances’ he proposes that a low intensity session should be long enough to reach the point where there are detectable indications of rising stress (either the beginning of upwards drift of HR or increased in perceived effort). If longer than this, there is increasing risk of damaging effects. A session shorter than this might not be enough to produce enough stress to achieve a useful training effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXc474Hu5U


The coach who probably deserves the greatest credit for emphasis on the value of low intensity training was Arthur Lydiard, who coached some of the great New Zealanders in the 1960's and Scandinavians in the 1970’s. One of his catch-phrases was 'train, don't strain'. However Lydiard never made it really clear what he meant by ‘quarter effort’. I have discussed Lydiard’s ideas on several occasions on my Wordpress blog. For example: canute1.wordpress.com

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